Little Hero – Courtney Kerin

I attend New River Academy and began creeking only a week ago in the new 2011 Hero I was kindly leant. My first creek was the Watauga in North Carolina. I am a small kayaker (5”1 and under 100lbs) who has only paddled playboats and the odd slalom boat, so for me this was a whole new world to climb into.

Obviously it felt different but it also felt very safe. I was super stable and able to bomb over any drop. I found it caught even the smallest eddies with ease. It also picked up good speed in between boulders and boofed over rocks with little effort. A week later our school visited the Jackson Kayaks factory for a tour and I got to pick up my very own, shiny new rasta colored Little Hero. It is absolutely Beautiful.
I was pumped the whole way back to West Virginia and that night to get on a creek and try it out. And so that’s exactly what I did the next morning.
I found this is the perfect creek boat for me. Its light to carry which is great as no-one wants to carry a boat half there own weight. It’s narrower so I can reach better to get in all of my strokes – and yes that means its even easier to boof than the Hero was! But don’t fear the narrower width does not loose out on the stability, I still found that it stayed upright even through the roughest rapids. And when I finally decided to roll it I was back upright before I knew it. The little hero drives, rolls, and moves like an athlete.

If you are a small paddler, you don’t need to keep paddling oversized boats that limit your ability. Get into a Little Hero and you can feel the way ever other bigger person feels in their creek boat! Invincible!